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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Goodlife.com Firstcry.com Review

This is a review of the online shopping sites firstcry.com and goodlife.com. This is a perfect example of a great business gone really bad after success. This review has been updated on Dec 10, 2012.

Firstcry.com claims to be Asia’s Largest Online Baby and Kid's Store and Goodlife.com is its sister site that started with make up and personal care products, but now sells a lot of other stuff including their new category world food. These are the safest sites on the internet for online shopping. I have been a regular customer with them since Nov 2011 but my shopping experience with them has degraded with time. Finally, I have reached a stage where I have decided never to return to them in the future.

I was introduced to them through a Facebook ad in Nov 2011. Discovering them was a life changing event for me and this is where my actual journey for full-fledged online shopping started. Everything was out of the world, right from the variety, the quick and helpful customer service, the toll free number, the courier and the packing was foolproof. It used to take me time to open each item as it was extremely sturdily packed and the cardboard box in which the orders used to arrive were so hard, I used to keep them for storing other stuff. The discounts were great too and there was some or the other offer going on all the time.They took their time to establish their brand and rapport in the Indian market till the time customers started trusting them blindly. But then came the twist. This business had high esteem in my eyes, till they started abusing their rapport to rip off customers, a few months back.WORST PACKING:Suddenly I started receiving poorly packed stuff since my last few orders. After having set up the expectations bar so high in the past, such an adverse change was shocking to me as a customer. As long I was receiving my orders intact, I was fine with the degraded packing. But in my last few orders, I have started receiving my orders packed in paper-thin cardboard boxes, which get badly crushed by the time they reach me, items get damaged, there is no bubble wrap (at least in my orders), makeup or liquid items have no sealing and the liquid leaks, and I receive half filled bottles. UPDATE ON DEC 10, 2012: I recently placed two big orders with them again. While one shipment was again screwed up, the rest of the products have reached me safely and this time my experience has been much better after so many months. Firstcry is going to pickup the damaged product and is looking into the matter. The problem of poor packing and damaged products is arising from their Delhi warehouse. All items shipped to me from Pune warehouse are perfectly packed and reach intact.

1.5 YEARS OLD PRODUCTS: The items that are being sent to me are sometimes a year old and this recent order had items 1.5 years old, despite my leaving instructions at two places during checkout, sending them a few emails and calling them a few times requesting to send me fresh products. In the past, I used to blindly place orders with them because the stuff I received was always fresh. POOR DISCOUNTS:They send you mailers for anything from 10% off to 25% off from time to time. But I have seen many other online businesses offering you the same or even higher discount, without the need to apply any special discount coupons.

USELESS DISCOUNT COUPONS:Many items listed in the 10% discount category are already on discount from the brand itself. Most customers do not understand that the discount coupon works on ‘whichever higher’ basis. If an item is listed on the site at 8% discount and you happily apply a 10% discount coupon, you only get extra 2% discount from the listed price (10% site discount on MRP > 8% brand discount on MRP: whichever higher concept). Therefore, except when there is 10% off on the entire site, you get only a small discount.CUSTOMER SERVICE: Earlier they used to reply to my emails within an hour and mostly used to call back. But now they do not reply to emails before 24 hours and just send copy pasted answers without even addressing my concern. I am still happy and impressed with the phone response team. Except for a few members, most of them are helpful to the greatest extent. Every time I had a problem, they went out of their way to address it. It is still a very professional business to deal with. They have refunded my money each time I was not happy with the order, and that too without any fuss. This is the only fact that still makes my heart ache, if only their warehouse/logistics team was a little more responsible with the quality and packaging of the products being sent. I would love to see this business go back to the previous quality that I enjoyed for many of my orders till a few months back.They used to have 24X7 online chat support and very prompt chat response too. But now clicking on that button just gives you a form to fill in. Then somebody emails you back within 24-48 hours with a copy pasted answer.Unlike most other online businesses, their Facebook contact either never responds to your concern or replies very late, sometimes after weeks. SHIPPING:Despite their shipping within 24 hours claim, they now take up to 48 hours to ship your prepaid order.The site says free shipping on all orders above Rs 100, which is kind of misleading. That's only for prepay customers. You need to read the shipping policy so you are not misled. I found many customers on their facebook page complaining when the courier asked them to pay additional charges for Cash on Delivery orders below Rs 300.CHECKOUT:There is a special instructions box that shows up at two places during checkout and payment, where you can give any special instructions line ‘Pls ensure all items are fresh’ or ‘Pls send through so and so courier’. They no longer read those instructions.

ORDER DELIVERY: The courier service has gone from bad to worse because now I receive my orders in 8-10 days as opposed to 5-6 days in the past.

PRODUCT REVIEWS SECTION: They have a review section on their website for each product, where you can leave a review of the product. Earlier they used to email you to discuss on the negative reviews. But now any review you post just disappears and gets automatically deleted within a few minutes.WHY I LOVE(D) SHOPPING WITH THEM:

24X7 Customer Support and Toll Free Number (1800-123-4545)

Minimum shopping amount only Rs 100 for prepay customers like me.

Single shopping cart and combined checkout for both sites.

Cart remains intact till I clear my cache and cookies. Most times I add items but do not checkout immediately. Till the time I do not clear cache and cookies, the items show up in the cart even if I come back many hours later. This is convenient for I don't have to search and add those items again. But this can be tricky if you don’t know about it. So always recheck the quantity of items before checking out.

SHIPPING POLICY:

Free shipping on all PREPAID (credit card, debit card, netbanking) purchases above Rs. 100. This is definitely a plus over other shopping websites when you want to purchase only one or two items.

For Cash On Delivery (COD) option, free shipping on all orders above Rs. 300. If your order is between Rs 101-300, you will be charged Rs 25 as Delivery charges.

All orders below Rs. 100 are charged an additional Rs. 50 for shipping.

Most Important: If you purchase something below Rs. 100, and opt for a COD, then you would be paying the bill + shipping charges (Rs.50) + as well the COD charges. (RS. 25)

THE VERDICT:

I have had excellent shopping experiences with them in the past. So despite several bad orders in the near past, I gave them benefit of doubt and kept ordering. But I can't be blind to my poor experience anymore. I AM DONE WITH THEM AND PRESENTLY WON'T RECOMMEND THIS BUSINESS TO ANYONE.With so much hype around online shopping, I am not surprised to see that this business does not stand anywhere in the list of my fellow bloggers. When I started having bad experiences with them, I checked out other sites only to find fresher products and much higher discounts than goodlife.com and firstcry.com.

If you are new to online shopping or are already an online shopper, I encourage you to read my Online Shopping Guide to be a smart and informed online shopper. You will be glad you did!

Thanks for your feedback Kanchan. I have stopped shopping with them altogether. Had made one order in Nov after a very long gap, but again had to go through the refund process and all as they packed my son's shower hat like a folded chapati and it got damaged. I really don't recommend this business to anyone anymore.

HANDLOOMWALA IS A VERY BIG CHEATER from this website of goodlife.com!!! THEY SENT ME HALF CURTAIN THAT TOO ITS TRASPARENT. THE IMAGES GIVEN ARE VERY WRONG!THEY TOOK 600/- RS FOR A 50/- RS WORTH PRODUCT NEVER BUY!!!

Dear Maya, there is something called quality control, where they are supposed to check the products before shipping them to you. Even if the curtain was from Handloomwala, it is goodlife.com's warehouse team's fault. I agree that most products are of very poor quality and you just cannot rely on the pictures. It is because of similar problems I stopped shopping with them. Did you not contact customer care to return it? I have got all poor orders returned and refunded by them.

I ordered Sai Arpan Bedsheet on 27.06.2013, i received product after 4 days. The product i received is worst and cheap quality. It's a roadside bedsheets cost around 100. The Good life peoples are cheating customer by showing branded products. I suggest dont buy any products from them.

Dear Shylender, thanks for sharing your feedback and I completely agree that this business has no quality check whatsoever. So shopping with them is just like gambling, you may get a good product or two by pure luck or chance, but most of the products are expensive and duplicate. I buy only games for my son once or twice in a year from them now. Recently bought a helmet from firstcry.com. The description said "Hard shell so and so material" and when I received, it was made of thermocol. I called and they asked me to ship back saying they will refund 10% of the product value as shipping charges, which meant Rs 30 for a Rs 300 helmet and that too when there is no local courier at my place. I had to keep it but I will post pictures on my other blog (kid's blog).

Thanks for your feedback Waquar. Even I wonder some times how is this business stil running when they are offering duplicate products at ridiculous prices and poor packing. Or may be they had to increase the shipping cost because they actually have very few customers left. I just read a positive review about them on a friend blogger's site and everybody has written "Oh I love goodlife.com" and I was shocked. I am one of their oldest customers from Nov 2011 and I have shopped with them a LOT! I cannot recommend this business to anyone. It is safe only to buy a few branded personal care products or kids games from them. Rest all is crap!

Dear Anas, even if they sell bad products and don't pack properly, they will surely return your money. Refunds do take 2-3 weeks and I am telling from my personal experience. They will not keep your money. It is the same with all businesses, processing of refunds takes a lot of time, but goodlife/ firstcry has always returned my money. It took some 14-25 days sometimes.

I am looking to buy infant clothes from firstcry. Is the quality ok? I dont bother about late delivery as far as i get the right product and at right condition. I have filled rs.10k worth in cart. After reading so many bad reviews i'm confused.

I have bought clothes a few times. The branded ones: Kappa, Juniors etc were fine but they were really dirty and soiled unlike the fresh ones you get at a mall or a shop. Then there were two jeans, one was a mumbai based brand and another was also some kids brand. They also turned out good though when I compare them to offline shopping, I felt they were costly coz we get extremely good clothes in Punjab for reasonable prices.

Apart from that, I had bought 2 bathrobes, they were just okay but at that price, I couldn't expect better quality as bath robes are very costly online otherwise. To be honest, I would never risk 10K on this site. Which city are you in?

Seems you are visiting India because these online stores do not ship internationally. If you are in Mumbai or Delhi, it is better to buy directly from an offline store. From firstcry, buy only branded stuff to be on the safer side. Babyoye i have never shopped with, they have a high shipping threshold. You can try flipkart.com and jabong.com too. At least the customer service is reliable and the delivery will be super quick if you are in a big city. That ways you can buy in small installments and judge the quality after you receive the first order.

Hi I have have ordered from first cry a baby bath tub for my nephew on 27/11/2013. The order reached to the shipping address on time.But the product was defective and the quality was not up to the mark.The cost of the product was Rs2000.I called the customer support team asking for refund.They have assured me they will refund my money in 7 to 8 working days.But reading the reviews i am a bit confused will they refund my money back??.

I would suggest that not to buy products from this web site as the are faking the customers by showing high quality products online and selling a lower quality product.

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Lifesutra By Gagan

About Me

I am a powerful mind, soaring high on the wings of creativity, supported by the strong winds of knowledge. I try, I fall, I try I succeed, I try, I experience; I experience, I learn; I learn, I share; I share, I feel happy. I am inspired by my unquenchable thirst for knowledge and my hunger to share my experiences with the world. Bad products and experiences turn me off. Hence this is my small effort to create better life experiences for others by helping them make informed choices through my product reviews.
"I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.”
― Dawna Markova, I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Purpose and Passion